Monday, October 24, 2016

Ever the Hunted by Erin Summerill

Seventeen year-old Britta Flannery is at ease only in the woods with her dagger and bow. She spends her days tracking criminals alongside her father, the legendary bounty hunter for the King of Malam—that is, until her father is murdered. Now outcast and alone and having no rights to her father’s land or inheritance, she seeks refuge where she feels most safe: the Ever Woods. When Britta is caught poaching by the royal guard, instead of facing the noose she is offered a deal: her freedom in exchange for her father’s killer.

However, it’s not so simple.

The alleged killer is none other than Cohen McKay, her father’s former apprentice. The only friend she’s ever known. The boy she once loved who broke her heart. She must go on a dangerous quest in a world of warring kingdoms, mad kings, and dark magic to find the real killer. But Britta wields more power than she knows. And soon she will learn what has always made her different will make her a daunting and dangerous force.






Rating: 1/5 stars



At least the odor works to mask Cohen inebriating scent. The man’s been travelling for days. Weeks. How can he smell so good?


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This was truly a disappointment. Ever The Hunted was one of my most anticipated releases of 2016, to say I didn’t like it would be the least. However, before I begin I just want to clarify something. I know that there were a lot of people who, like me, had high hopes for this book so please, don’t let my rating discourage you from reading it!
This is simply my opinion, and I’ll try to explain below the reasons for said rating (without giving much of the plot away) but again, just because I didn’t like it doesn’t mean you guys won’t!

Now… buckle the fuck up, kids. Cause this is a rant, and it’s a messy one.

One of my biggest problems with Ever the Hunted was its lack of originality. This book is absolutely nothing we haven’t read before in a thousand other YA novels. For fuck’s sake, I could already predict how the story would turn out after twenty pages! It’s trope-y as fuck, but since I can’t go into a lot of detail because the book hasn’t been published yet, here’s a preview of the things that led me to this rating:

-Predictable plot.

-Dumb-as-bricks main character (seriously, her stupidity was my number 1 problem with the story)

-SO FUCKING BORING romance.

-The romantic angst. Oh God! the angst…!

-The unnecessary and insensitive sexual violence toward women (which is, unfortunately, a staple in YA).

-The special-snowflakeness was SO fucking strong in this one.

-I’m serious, and it didn’t help that Britta was a complete idiot.
-Illogical, nonsensical and shady world-building.

-Imagine every trope you can think of, all handled poorly.


Britta was probably my biggest problem because the whole story is told from her point of view, so it’s basically impossible to ignore how bloody stupid the girl was. She whined all the time and that wonderful revenge plot went to shit the second she started smelling Cohen’s super sexy and manly smell.

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You see, Britta is just like your average Young Adult fantasy protagonist. She’s white. She’s pretty (but doesn’t know it!!!!). She’s hated by absolutely EVERYONE in her village for dumb reasons regarding the dumb world-building, except the best friend she’s in love with (but who broke her heart!!!!). She has a disturbingly weird obsession with Cohen’s smell (going as far as trying to “drink in gulps of his smell”). She has the uncanny ability to identify when people are telling the truth or lying as well as heal very fast, yet she has never considered the fact that she might have magic (*bangs head against wall until brains spill out*).

If I’m being fair, the story started out pretty decent, except the part of everyone in her village hating her. 
I’ve said it a thousand times and I’ll say it again, the “everybody-hates-me” trope is one I’ll never understand. I think right now we all, one way or another, what it is like for a group of people to be feared/hated. But whether you are part of the group or the one fearing/hating, we can all agree that it’s not black and white; nobody will ever be hated by EVERYBODY or loved by EVERYBODY. We are all different people, and so we react differently.

Creating a character that it’s hated and scorned by everyone in her village is nothing but a cheap way to make readers feel sympathy for Britta. Problem is, when this happens I never go “oh, poor you, little main character!!!!” especially when she spends the entire fucking book moaning about it and craving the mystical connection of her lost mother and family…

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That should have been my first clue that I wasn’t going to enjoy this book, but I loved the premise so I decided to carry through.

Britta is on the last moments of her grieving period, her father was murdered months ago and because of the laws of the land, she’s considered an illegitimate daughter, therefore unable to remain in her father’s cottage or retain any of his possessions since they’ll go back to the King.

Starving and desperate, she kills an animal to feed herself and is found by the royal guards. Since hunting is a crime punishable with death (can someone explain why?), she’s offered a choice; hunt down her best friend (and crush) Cohen who’s been charged for her father’s murder, or face execution.

With Britta’s unique ability to tell whether someone is lying or not (which is useless when the girl is a complete moron), she realizes that the charges are true, and so she goes to seek out vengeance…

Until she comes across Cohen’s hard planes and even harder muscles, and vengeance goes out the fucking window!



Definitely the entire plot went to hell the minute Cohen came into the picture. The romance overtook the entire story, and it didn’t help that it was boring, overly dramatic and totally ridiculous.

Britta was the sort of character that everybody praised for being brave, selfless, smart and cunning when she was in fact everything but. This girl was DUMB, no other way around it. She was supposed to be an amazing tracker, yet her skills either came out of nowhere such as looking at a bush and instantly knowing some dude had walked there instead of LITERALLY any other, or not noticing obvious track marks.

Bernard! You found my tracks,” he says.
“You left tracks?” I’m stunned I didn’t notice.



One night she was in the woods and sees someone lurking in the dark. Believing it might be someone dangerous, instead of calling the three fucking guards sleeping right next to her, Britta decides she’ll just run into the woods and chase the dude with nothing but a knife while she’s weak and hurt. Once the dude almost kills her Britta thinks:

I lack strength and a bow. I shouldn’t have followed him. Not alone. How foolish of me.


IT WAS FOOLISH OF HER.

Really! Who the fuck runs into the dark woods after a fucking killer? Has Britta even seen a horror movie in her life???

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This continues on with Britta trusting people she clearlyshouldn’t trust. Doing things she was specifically told not to do, and basically fuck up the entire plan by trying to be “selfless” (read, stupid and stubborn).

I just couldn’t understand how someone could be so dumb and still be alive. Most of the time these lapses of judgement were used as a way to create drama and try to bring in some shock value by assuming we can be as dumb as Britta (if she’s surprised, we’ll be too!!! Not), or just to add more fuel to drag the annoying romance.

Barely three pages could go by without Britta reminding us of how Cohen only saw her as a friend, even though it was fucking clear that he didn’t. This going back and forth between the characters was meant to build-up the romance; will Britta realize that Cohen loves her? Will he stop acting like a dick??

“I am a fool because all I can think about is touching his jaw. Is it as soft as it looks?”


I honestly couldn’t give less of a fuck.

Britta not realizing Cohen’s obvious feelings only made her seem stupid, especially since her unhealthy obsession with Cohen (and his smells, da fuq was up with that??) was more pressing than finding out who kill her father or even, ya know, STAYING FUCKING ALIVE.

-The world building made no sense:

We had two Kingdoms who were at war because one, all of a sudden, decided that Channellers (people with magic) were evil and had to be killed, and the other one didn’t (even though they had been pretty close up until a few years ago, people just decided to hate each other, apparently).

What I never understood was the reasoning behind the extermination, the best explanation we get is:

Tension between Malam and Shaerdan has brewed for years. Papa told me of a time before King Aodren’s rule when a three year drought decimated Malam’s crops. People blamed Shaerdan’s Channelers, who used to sell healing ointments all over Malam.


If somebody can explain me how healing ointments relate to a fucking draught, I’d really appreciate it.

In the end nothing really explained the war or anything of the world.

-The unnecessary sexual violence towards women:

Let’s face it, we have all read it. How many times have we come across that sick bastard who is there just to threaten the heroine with rape, all so the gallant hero can save her? In here we have it with Tomas, a guard tasked with protecting Britta during her journey, even though it’s fucking clear that dude should be behind bars and far away from a girl as possible.

I’m serious, Britta is promised not to be harmed while she hunts for her father’s killer, and when Tomas makes a comment such as this:

”Maybe the scrant will clean well enough for tasting.” Off to my right side, Tomas leers.


Nobody gives a fuck!

As with most of these guys, I never saw his purpose other than just being there to behave like a dick and constantly put us on edge with the “will he rape her/won’t he?” which was not only unnecessary an disturbing as fuck, but also totally disconnected from the entire story?? I guess he was just meant to be another obstacle in our heroine’s path, but he added literally NOTHING to the story.

The ending was, as I said, laughably predictable and it didn’t help endear me to the book since it was related to the romantic drama.

In the end, I was just really disappointed with Ever the Hunted. Hopefully others will find it better! I’ll write a more spoilery review once the book is published.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Saturday, October 15, 2016

Wake by Lisa Mcmann

For seventeen-year-old Janie, getting sucked into other people's dreams is getting old. Especially the falling dreams, the naked-but-nobody-notices dreams, and the sex-crazed dreams. Janie's seen enough fantasy booty to last her a lifetime.
She can't tell anybody about what she does they'd never believe her, or worse, they'd think she's a freak. So Janie lives on the fringe, cursed with an ability she doesn't want and can’t control.
Then she falls into a gruesome nightmare, one that chills her to the bone. For the first time, Janie is more than a witness to someone else's twisted psyche. She is a participant.
 










Rating: 2/5 Stars




”This is not the right way to fix it, she decides. But what is the right way?
Because it’s time.

Time to stop crying, time to get her act together and do something. Time to move beyond the pity party.”


Trust me when I say, this is NOT Janie’s motherfucking time.

This is a weird book, there’s no denying it. In many ways it can be reminiscent of Shatter Me; the sometimes awkward writing style (albeit Mafi’s could actually be beautiful while this one is just clunky), the self-pitying main character, the lack of a plot (again, Shatter Me at least had the whole revolution while this is just a girl complaining and descriptions of very simple dreams), and the special snowflake-ness.

The premise of Wake is actually pretty interesting. Janie doesn’t have dreams of her own, instead ever since she was eight years old she discovered she is sucked into other people’s dreams against her will. She can still feel herself in the real world, move and think, but she is blind to reality while she is unable to escape out of someone else’s dream world. This brings her a whole lot of problems for her, considering how she sometimes is impaired to walk, drive and basically do anything that could put her at risk when someone nearby is dreaming.

I’m conflicted about this book because it had some really cool stuff, not just the dream presence but you also had representation of teenagers having sex (both responsibly and not) and it was assumed as something normal other than shameful or terrible, like we see in so many other young adult stories. There was also a gay character!... but she was kind of a bitch, although to be fair pretty much all girls were assholes so… yeay? *throws confused and pissed off confetti*

Like I said, it has some cool stuff but the story suffers from a lack of plot, dumb characters and emotionless writing. This book had some serious heavy issues, yet the way it dealt with them was so bland and senseless you just couldn’t connect with it.

”Janie’s mother simply doesn’t care about anything that has to do with Janie. She has never really cared.

And that’s fucking sad.”


I wasn’t a fan of Janie, the main character. She’s had this problem ever since she was eight and she never done anything about besides cry, not even google about it! It was so dumb, all she ever did was complain but never take any precaution, hell the doctor tells her not to drive because of her “seizures” and first thing she does when she leaves the consult is buy a car, because she’s just that fricking dumb.

It was more annoying when you consider how easy it was for her to take control of her dream situation (albeit by the end of the book, not entirely so). All she had to do was read a few books on dreams, say out loud “I want to have a dream to tell me how to fix this problem” and in one night BOOM! Problema solved.

The romance was… really weird. There’s this guy, Caleb, who Janie only talked to once, yet two years after that first conversation the guy starts flirting with her out of nowhere and having dreams where he kisses her. It was even weirder because he once fell asleep beside her and he somehow saw her in the dream, then he woke up all pissed at her yelling “What the fuck is wrong with you?” even though… it made no sense. Somehow because he saw her in the dream, Janie felt bad and confessed her problem to him, A COMPLETE STRANGER. Because the guy just started yelling at her, she somehow knew he knew she had (accidentally) invaded his privacy, even though we never knew what… ugh, forget it it’ll never make sense.

The guy gets a little freaked out that she had been inside her head because, let’s face it, nobody would want that. And what does Janie do? The second she hears a rumor that the guy she’s talked to three times might be selling drugs and sleeping with some girl, she goes to his house in the middle of the night hoping to catch him while dreaming so she can get inside his head LIKE A TOTAL CREEP. 

”She can hear his bed creak when he lies down, and she can hear him punch his pillow, getting settled for sleep.

She wonders what he wears to bed. She is more than temped to look.

But she will wait.

She must wait.

She waits.”


Seriously, what was wrong with her?


Overall, and even though it had its many, many flaws, Wake was still a somewhat entertaining read and very short in case people want to try it out.

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Waiting on Wednesday: When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon



Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly even hosted by Breaking the Spine which spotlights upcoming releases we are eagerly anticipating.

This week's book is:

When Dimple Met Rishi
By Sandhya Menon

Publication date: May 30th 2017

Pages: 320

Summary:
A laugh-out-loud, heartfelt YA romantic comedy, told in alternating perspectives, about two Indian-American teens whose parents have arranged for them to be married. 

Dimple Shah has it all figured out. With graduation behind her, she’s more than ready for a break from her family, from Mamma’s inexplicable obsession with her finding the “Ideal Indian Husband.” Ugh. Dimple knows they must respect her principles on some level, though. If they truly believed she needed a husband right now, they wouldn’t have paid for her to attend a summer program for aspiring web developers…right? 

Rishi Patel is a hopeless romantic. So when his parents tell him that his future wife will be attending the same summer program as him—wherein he’ll have to woo her—he’s totally on board. Because as silly as it sounds to most people in his life, Rishi wants to be arranged, believes in the power of tradition, stability, and being a part of something much bigger than himself. 

The Shahs and Patels didn’t mean to start turning the wheels on this “suggested arrangement” so early in their children’s lives, but when they noticed them both gravitate toward the same summer program, they figured, Why not? 

Dimple and Rishi may think they have each other figured out. But when opposites clash, love works hard to prove itself in the most unexpected ways.


Why am I anticipating this book?

When Dimple Met Rishi just sounds so adorable! I'm really looking forward to seeing how this love story will develop, and to be able to experience a different culture than my own.
Plus, is it just me or does that drink looks delicious??

What books are you anticipating?

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

A Shadow Bright and Burning by Jessica Cluess

I am Henrietta Howel. The first female sorcerer. The prophesied one. Or am I?

Henrietta Howel can burst into flames. When she is brought to London to train with Her Majesty's sorcerers, she meets her fellow sorcerer trainees, young men eager to test her powers and her heart. One will challenge her. One will fight for her. One will betray her. As Henrietta discovers the secrets hiding behind the glamour of sorcerer life, she begins to doubt that she's the true prophesied one. With battle looming, how much will she risk to save the city--and the one she loves?











Rating: 3/5 Stars


"Knowledge is as powerful as fire. The brighter it burns, the more it devours."


It’s been such a long time since I’ve written a review! To be fair, it’s because it’s been a really long time since I actually finished a book, but combine a heavy work load with an annoying reading slump and you’ll have me.

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Truth is, I have three books that I’ve read until the half and then… never felt like continuing again (EoS remains at the 30 something page mark). The thing with my reading slumps is that they work in mysterious ways; sometimes I read a page of a book, get mad because I’m not SUPER DUPER into the story (It’s only first page, what the hell does my slump expect?) and quit. On other occasions I start reading a book, but at a certain point I lose interest and stop.

Either way the result is the same, I just can’t finish a book which leaves me frustrated, which makes the reading slump worse because I simply don’t want to pick any book.

Then comes A Shadow Bright and Burning. It had been one of my most anticipated 2016 releases, at least until negatives reviews started to roll out and I dimmed my excitement a bit in order not to get my hopes crushed. On Sunday I started reading a bit, just because I like to remind myself how much it sucks to be in a reading slump because I’m that much of a FREAKING MASOCHIST, when something weird happened:

I actually enjoyed reading.

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WHAT??! My brain could not comprehend what was happening I mean, after so long?? Was it even possible??? I proceeded with caution, sure that this wouldn’t hold and I would get to the fifty percent mark (if I even made it that far) only to drop it.

That was Sunday, and on Monday I finished it *throws confetti*

I do have very mixed feelings with the book though. It has simple and engaging writing, and although it seemed it was going to be full of tropes the story did a wonderful work of turning them around (though not all, some still remained). However, the book is far from perfect and although I did enjoy it there were things that annoyed me to no end.

Let’s see a brief summary of what I liked:

-No girl-on-girl hate (it seems so little, but you can hardly read YA these days without coming across girls hating each other for no reason other than misogyny).

-A boy and a girl being friends with absolutely no romance involved!

-The girl actually likes having power and wants to do something with them (unlike the “I don’t want to be special trope” that seems to plague other books… *glares at Shadow and Bone*)

-A nice twist on The Chosen One trope.

-There were many twists, some which I didn’t see coming.

-Simple and engaging writing. It might not have been the most elaborate of styles, but the author has the ability to create good stories, an ability that may be overlooked until you come across someone who does it well.

-A POC main character.

-Critics to misogyny in society.


What I didn’t like:

-The unnecessary love drama. I think I’m disappointed about this the most because it seemed like the story wouldn’t take this path… and then it did. Fuck love triangles and all their glory.

-Magnus. I didn’t hate the guy, but the ONLY reason he was in the story was to create said unnecessary love drama. In the end I just started to roll my eyes whenever his name would appear on page.

-Sexual abuse is used to make a character look even worse (apparently it wasn't enough that he beat and starved little girls, the poor orphans just ahd to have it worse) and show how bad the main character was treated, but it's never mentioned after or its aftermaths.

-The story could resemble a lot to Shadow and Bone at the beginning.

-After the first half I felt the story started to go a bit downhill.

-Characters decided against doing something logical because it was “bad”, then did something ten times worse because… they were idiots.

-I started liking Henrietta, but soon her character began to lose focus and I didn’t know why she was fighting anymore.

-Sometimes the critics to the society and how misogynistic it was could get off topic, ramble too much or over-shadow the plot.

-Characters decided to ignore obvious signs of warnings because “they didn’t want to deal with that” and then regretted not acting sooner *bangs head against wall*


I started the story liking Henrietta. She actually enjoyed her power but was afraid of what it would be done to her if found; witchcraft is illegal in women so the punishment is death.

I liked how she made the people around her question their judgement, while also accepting that she could make mistakes and discriminate, and would learn from it.
It was fun to see her being ingenious and find new ways to keep her secret hidden; despite what everybody believes, she’s not the prophesied one (this is not a spoiler it’s in the blurb) and her real nature would make her a pariah and would face execution. She was honest in her intentions, she wanted to help the world get rid of the beasts killing people, but she also wanted to remain alive and safe, and keep her friend alive as well all of which could only be accomplished by lying.

Nevertheless, by the middle of the book Henrietta’s motivation became unclear. Was she doing all of it to be safe? Or because she wanted power? She could become very selfish and that didn’t make me like her more. Add that to the love triangle that for SOME REASON just had to be in the story, and I could get very annoyed with Henrietta; she would swear she loved someone more than anything, and then make out with another guy the next day. I didn’t understand what she was doing or why, and when she started to feel sorry for herself and complain of the problems SHE had caused… it just got worse.

The story starts really simple, and you think this is going to be just another fun quick read full of tropes; the kind you have read a thousand times before. But to my delight the book surprised me, it took a lot of those tropes and destroyed them making a quite unique story… and sometimes not so much. I know, it’s weird.

I recommend this who like light fantasy novels with a few twists and fun writing.

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

The Forbidden Wish by Jessica Khoury

She is the most powerful Jinni of all. He is a boy from the streets. Their love will shake the world... 

When Aladdin discovers Zahra's jinni lamp, Zahra is thrust back into a world she hasn't seen in hundreds of years—a world where magic is forbidden and Zahra's very existence is illegal. She must disguise herself to stay alive, using ancient shape-shifting magic, until her new master has selected his three wishes. 

But when the King of the Jinn offers Zahra a chance to be free of her lamp forever, she seizes the opportunity—only to discover she is falling in love with Aladdin. When saving herself means betraying him, Zahra must decide once and for all: is winning her freedom worth losing her heart?

As time unravels and her enemies close in, Zahra finds herself suspended between danger and desire in this dazzling retelling of Aladdin from acclaimed author Jessica Khoury.



Rating: 2,5/5 Stars


This was a story that started with a lot of potential; beautiful writing, vibrant setting, funny and compelling characters... but soon, it got boring.

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The Forbidden Wish is an Aladdin retelling with the Jinn’s point of view. After being kept prisoner in her lamp for hundreds of years, Zahra is finally set free by the thief Aladdin, who is set on revenge for the death of his parents at the hands of a tyrannical ruler.

Like I said, the beginning of the story was wonderful! The characters were amazing, both well-rounded and their interactions could be super funny.

I liked how, even though there were some hints of romance here and there, it wasn’t overpowering or heavy handed; Aladdin was a womanizer and yet Zahra wasn’t jealous or anything, their interactions were mostly friendly at first.

But then, the romance began and it came OUT OF NOWHERE.

I tend to cringe whenever there’s a character who is hundreds even THOUSANDS years old and yet acts like a silly teenager because… well it doesn’t seem realistic. After that much time you’re bound to change and have a different perspective. That doesn’t happen here, Zahra is (three thousand? Four thousand?) years old and yet suddenly she was blushing and stammering and feeling rejected for silly little things. It became annoying! We had a Jinn thousands of years old and yet she behaved like a sixteen year old.

The romance between her and Aladdin wasn’t believable to me because, even though they had decent chemistry, it suddenly became undying love in FIVE SECONDS. Not to mention how Aladdin had always been a womanizer, believing himself in love only to discover he really wasn’t and move on to the next girl. I don’t see why his relationship with Zahra would be any different, and yet it was deemed as “true love” and what not.

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I don’t mind romance, I really don’t. But you need to show me why those two characters belong together or else I won’t buy it.

The plot was ok at first, but the author started focusing more on the relationship between the main characters and less in the main conflict, that left the narration feeling clunky and rushed. Nothing would happen for three chapters and suddenly BOOM! Everything unfolds in one, and then it went back to the romance.

There were also a few things I didn’t understand. Zahra claimed that after thousands of years granting wishes, she was very imaginative. Yet, when she had to fight instead of turning herself into a beast or something powerful and monstrous like she had done so many times before, she just changes her clothes to leather and makes a sword? How is that helpful???????

After the fifty percent mark the story got so boring to me, I had simply no desire to keep reading. The book is not too long and yet it took me forever to get to the end simply because I didn’t want to pick up the book, I was happy to let it sit on my table.

I didn’t like the ending or how things were resolved, as Katerina said, it was very HEA. And when I say very I mean TOO FUCKING MUCH. Things were solved way too easily and with little effort, it made it look anticlimactic.

Overall, The Forbidden Wish was a book with a wonderful premise and good characters, only the romance was insta-love and the resolution disappointing.

Sunday, August 14, 2016

Blue Lily Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater

The third installment in the mesmerizing series from the irrepressible, #1 NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author Maggie Stiefvater.

There is danger in dreaming. But there is even more danger in waking up.

Blue Sargent has found things. For the first time in her life, she has friends she can trust, a group to which she can belong. The Raven Boys have taken her in as one of their own. Their problems have become hers, and her problems have become theirs.

The trick with found things though, is how easily they can be lost.

Friends can betray.
Mothers can disappear.
Visions can mislead.
Certainties can unravel.



Rating: 4/5 Stars


“What an impossible and miraculous and hideous thing this was. An ugly plan hatched by an ugly boy now dreamt into ugly life. From dream to reality. How appropiate it was that Ronan, left to his own devices, manifested beautiful cars and beautiful birds and tenderhearted brothers, while Adam, when given the power, manifested a filthy string of perverse murders.”


It’s good to find a series you can fall in love with, and I think this is what’s finally happened for me here.

However, as you very well know, in any relationship there are always bumps in the road. The first book I loved; it wasn’t perfect (nothing ever is) but I liked it enough to buy the entire series ahead, something I’ve NEVER done before. When The Raven King finally arrived (it had been a pre-order about thirty days before its release) I decided it was time to continue with the series and read the popular Dream Thieves, which was, as fate would have it, pretty much everybody’s favorite book of the three.

I took it with grabby hands anxious to see more on FUCKING RONAN LYNCH, FUCK YEAH!...

And I was… really disappointed by it. I mean, the author had an amazing premise, someone who could take anything he wanted from dreams, including nightmares, and for me the end result came out as a clusterfuck of boringness and annoyance. How can you turn dream-stealing stuff into that?? The plot was slow, the character development hectic, and the overuse of purple prose (which I had been fine with in the first book) became mind-numbing and infuriating.

Needless to say, I felt like crap. Here I was reading everybody’s favorite book, and I was once again the black sheep amongst the herd. The very lonely and sad black sheep.

I was scared to find out whether I’d like the third book or not, because if I didn’t then it would mean I had bought the entire series for nothing, and boy would that suck.

But then Blue Lily Lily Blue was so freaking amazing, I fell in love with the series all over again.
Of course, it wasn’t perfect. The plot is still going nowhere and even though the author likes to draw out long and overly complicated metaphors for her characters and the relationships between them, there’s still very little we know about them (something hard considering this is mostly a character-driven story). But I love it nonetheless!

Part of it was probably because this book was SO DAMN SASSYYYYYYYYYY!

There were a few new characters (and not so much) in BLLB and they gave the story some much needed humour and intrigue.


Ronan:

“Behind him, he heard Ronan say, "I like the way you losers thought Instagram before first aid. Fuck off.”


He was fantastic here, I still feel like the author is not quite sure what to do with him besides some family history and a little romance (but not enough, in my opinion) but I still really liked him; he was funny, loyal and overall wonderful. My only complaint (and this is something I have with all characters in this series) is that we don’t get to see enough of him.


Blue:

“Blue,” he warned, but his voice was chaotic. This close, his throat was scented with mint and wool sweater and vinyl car seat, and Gansey, just Gansey.

She said, “I just want to pretend. I want to pretend that I could.”


She was a tough one to judge, because as Jaz said; it looks like the author is still unsure on what to do with her and where she stands in the story.

On the one hand, this makes sense considering her characterization. Blue is a non-psychic in a psychic family. She’s surrounded by the magical while being normal herself, and the only “distinctive” feature she has is not even something that works in her favour, but in others by enhancing their abilities. When she is with the boys she has friends, but now school is coming to an end and she is beginning to realize that they will all go different ways and she’ll stay in Henrietta with little to no chances of ever leaving it or doing something “meaningful” with her life. So even with her friends, she’s bound to be the normal surrounded by the extraordinary. Blue herself is not sure where she stands in this world, which translates to her characterization; she can be flimsy and indecisive.

However, I also struggled a lot with her simply because I do not understand what the heck she’s doing with the Raven Boys. Her friendship with them doesn’t seem as natural as the narration makes you want to believe it is. She’s been warned her entire life about her curse, but the second she finds Gansey and his friends, instead of doing the logical thing and stepping the fuck away, she seeks them out and joins their group for no reason at all!

I thought this was going to be explained by book three, but since it hasn’t I realized that there’s really no reason; the author wanted this story to start so she just shoved Blue into the group and tried to make it work… somehow. But I don’t see it, so I’m always wondering what the hell is she doing there? What??

Not to mention that, as a person who was born in a family of psychics, Blue can be very naïve and stubborn when it comes to the supernatural. Traits that would be better suited for someone like Adam, who lived his life not being touched by magic. But with Blue, it makes her a tad frustrating because, C’mon! You should have known better!



Adam:

“Adam was beginning to realize that he hadn't known Ronan at all. Or rather, he had known part of him and assumed it was all of him.”


He was alright, I liked seeing how his character developed from book one in relation to his friends, as well as his idea of money and a better life. But ever since that deal with Cabeswater, it seems as if something is missing from him. Like, his personality or relevance to the plot besides serving that place. Whenever the author introduces something new and exciting and related to Adam and only him (like the thing with his father) she quickly dismisses it to deal with something else entirely. It didn’t help in showing more of the character.



Gansey:

“What do we do now?" Gansey asked.
From the other room, Calla bellowed, "GO BUY US PIZZA. WITH EXTRA CHEESE, RICHIE RICH."
Blue said, "I think she's starting to like you.”


Even though he’s one of the main characters and pretty much the leader in the search for Glendower (plus the whole thing about him dying soon) Gansey is the character I know the least of. Who is this kid besides his aversion to hornets, obsession with Glendower (which I still don’t totally get besides the explanation of the almost death on the ley line) and his crush on Blue (how did that came to be??).
I love him, but I want to know more about him. About all of them.

Overall, this was a great book, funny and with some cool twists and mysteries! I still wished the characters and plot was more developed, but a great book nonetheless.